Toilets, Sinks, Showers, Tubs and Disposals - Toilet leaking at tank screw

Hi,

My toilet is leaking at the screw in the bottom of the tank. It has leaked a little off and on since it was installed 1 1/2 years ago-I usually keep something inder there to catch it if it drips. So I decided to tighten the screw to see if that would stop it. I held the nut below with a pliers and turned the screw, it turned fairly easily so i thought it must have been loose. Well, now it's leaking worse. The other bad thing is that I can't turn the water off completely to that toilet-there must be something wrong with the valves there. So I have to turn the water off to the whole house if i am going to do anything to it.
So, what should I do? I thought of draining the tank completely and taking it all apart-putting in a new washer? There is a rubber one on it now and when i screw the bolt, it slowly goes back tot he place it was before. Should I buy some of that new super putty and put it over the leak like they show in the commercials? Can I get some sort of plumber's putty or something? How long would it need to dry-since I have to turn off the water in the whole house.
Thanks for any suggestions.

First off you really need to replace the supply valve so that you can turn the water off at the toilet.I suggest you do this first so you don't have to turn off your whole house to fix the toilet.Your post suggests age etc on this toilet which means eventually further repairs and that means you'll need a working supply valve.Replace it as they are basically not repairable when they reach the point yours is at.Consider replacing the supply line as well as it may give you some trouble resealing if it also has age on it.

As for your leaking tank bolts....you should buy a set of new bolts which will come with washers and replace all of them in your toilet (most have two but some three).You should also make sure you didn't damage or crack the porcelain at the bolt hole when you attempted tightening.

Avoid TV products....even if they work temporarily you'll regret using them later.

Leaking for 1 1/2 years sounds suspicious, and you may do well to pull the tank and inspect it. This should take less than an hour to do: the tank mates to the seat and there is a rubber gasket to prevent leaks. The tank bolts to the seat with brass bolts and nuts or wingnuts, and those holes are waterproofed with rubberized gaskets inside the tank and underneath.

Have replacement parts in hand: you can get the tank gasket / bolts / nuts / gaskets from in a little plastic bag at Home Deep for about $6. (I did this just the other day.) Turn the water off, flush, and remove any excess water from the tank. Remove the bolts and pull the tank.

This is where the inspection part comes in: if the last installer used too much force it's possible they cracked the ceramic and caused the permanent leak. Hopefully it's just a bad gasket on the bolt on that side.

To reinstall, pull the old gasket off the tank, clean the gasket surfaces on the tank and seat, and clean the surfaces around the bolt holes. Put the new gasket on the tank, mate it to the seat, and install the bolts. The picture on the package shows how to install it, but it not just remember that only the rubbery gaskets touch the ceramic, then washers touch the gaskets, then bolts and nuts touch the washers.

I haven't used the putty you mention, so I don't know if that's a good solution for you.

Good luck with it!
Dave O

To go one step further, buy a second package of the tank-to-bowl nuts (may have to buy a kit). Install in this order: inside tank rubber washer, metal washer and bolt through hole with rubber washer down. Under tank, rubber washer, metal washer and nut. This will make the tank an independently leak proof (if there is such a thing) unit. With the bolt sticking down, secure it to the bowl using a metal washer and nut. Now if you have to remove the tank for maintenance it will lift off and not leak all over the floor before you dump in in the tub.

Thank you for your suggestions, I will try it.

As for the water shut off valve, is it costly to replace? Do they need to sodder a new piece on there, or do they have to go behind the wall to get at something else? I ask because all the mechanisms are behind a door in the bedroom on the other side of the wall, and the door to it has been painted shut-previous owners were GENIUSES!
:wall:
Just wanting to know how much we're talking about $100 or $500. Thanks!

I would replace the washers - but before you get too far, realize that there are 2 nuts involved. One is below the tank, ( tightens the washer) and the other is below the bowl. (holds the tank to the bowl).

To stop a leak you describe - you need to get a wrench in between the tank and bowl. It sounds like you may have tightened the wrong nut to make it worse ?

The nut under the bowl would only be tightened enough to secure the tank.

Replacing the valve is cheap to do it your self - and depends on what you have now. If it's soldered, then you have to solder, it could also be a compression. Not sure what a plumber would charge. Soldering is only DIY if you are comfortable with it. (practice first)

There should be no need to replace it, just replace the washer inside it. 10 minute job, cost 25 cents. We can walk you through it if you want.

Good advice Chandler !

"There should be no need to replace it, just replace the washer inside it. 10 minute job, cost 25 cents. We can walk you through it if you want."


YIPEE!!! Ok, I notice a screw on the front of the handle, Do I unscrew that?

If the fill mechanism is working - there is no need to remove any of it (including the handle). One caveat to that statement is that you might want to remove (unscrew) the float arm (big ball on a stick - depending on your model) to make access to the tank bolts easier.

The fill mechanism is working, but i can't shut the water off completely to the tank, it shuts off a little, but in a few minutes the tank is full again. That's why I said to maybe remove that handle--or else the flexible hoses that attach to it. Where are there washers that I can replace?

Going off on a slight tangent on something already mentioned, my analysis as to why the leak got worse the first time you tried tightening the hardware is that you should have held the screw stationary inside the tank and tightened the NUT outside. By holding the nut and turning the screw inside the tank what you likely did was disturb the seal between the bolt head and bottom of the tank, essentially wrinkling it so it was no longer nice and flush between the two surfaces.

Can you kill the main shutoff to the building?

Concerning the water cut off: You really should replace the floor/wall valve to ensure it works... but - I recognize that is often beyond a person's ability. If that's the case - your fill valve sounds as if it's working (or water would be running all the time).... In which case, you "could" rig a way to keep the valve closed (raise the float manually) while working on the tank bolts. Not the best option - but sometimes you do what you gotta do.....

First of all, thanks for all of your helpful advice!!!

I've got trouble! Now my main shut-off valve to the house isn't shutting off completely! Could it be that i've used it too much in the last week trying to fix the leaky toilet and wore it out? :eek:

I did however rig up the flow thing so that it stopped filling, so i could get to the screws, thanks tribe_fan

I tried to get to the nut directly under the toilet, but, i can't for the life of me see it at all. All I see are two very squishy washers. I am also noticing that that tank leans back; it's not even, and it also leans to the right. Could that be part of the problem too?

Those "squishy washers" are probably the original washers that got squished and now hang over the nut in question. Take a sharp knife and clean them up till you find the nut - you're going to replace them anyway, right? Toilet tanks are notorious for not being perfectly straight. It's all in the way they were originally set in place. The big sealing rubber at the base will allow for severe slanting if the tank is seated that way. Hopefully it won't cause you any issues.

Regards tightening the bolts - I typically will use my body weight on first one side and then the other - tightening the bolts only till they're snug before moving to the opposite side. This way I don't chance cracking the porcelain tank. You'll probably want another pair of hands to assist you from underneath while you/he levels/weights the tank from above and holds the screwdriver to keep the bolt from twisting as the nut is tightened.

Well, you won't believe it but, when we took the tank off, it turns out that there weren't any nuts directly underneath the tank, there was a triangular piece of rubber with 3 built in squishy washers! Apparently koehler uses them on this style of toilet instead of nuts-no wonder I couldn't find them-the one that was leaking was all twisted! So we replaced that mess with real nuts and screws and the had to solder on a new valve/shut off. I didn't do the soldering, but everything went pretty quickly. thanks everyone for the input, I really appreciate it!:thumbup: